


To Be Bound

by ghostwise



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Gen, canon is but an empty field for me to grow my crops on, though he's not the inquisitor yet in this... ooohh, yes folks it's a ketojan inquisitor au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-27 12:54:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16702990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostwise/pseuds/ghostwise
Summary: Ketojan lives, given another chance by an unusual twist of fate.





	To Be Bound

“I appreciate your intent, even if it was… wrong,” he says.

He means it, too, only hesitating on that last word because it’s not quite true. Not quite accurate. Because in his current state of mind, right and wrong feel frighteningly subjective—and if the human truly believes what she attempted was noble and worthy, how is she to know otherwise, misguided as she is now?

She looks at him with a slight furrow of the brow, her mouth tense with worry.

“You’ve been through a lot today,” she tells him. “Do not make a hasty decision. Come with us and rest for a time—you can decide what to do later.”

“I have decided now,” he says. “I know the will of Arvaarad. I must return as demanded…”

“But-”

“It is the wisdom of the Qun.”

“I cannot allow it!”

Her emotion sparks through, her words brim with anxiety and _compassion_. For him?

Odd. Wrong.

“You will die,” she tells him, voice breaking, as if he does not know this already.

He briefly wonders why it is any trouble to her. Her companions watch from a distance, their expressions similarly heavy. He wonders how he got into this situation, a pawn for the humans. A shame.

Saarebas walks away. He knows not to where, simply that he cannot be here any longer. Behind him, he can hear two pairs of footsteps, following closely.

“I do not want to die,” he says. “I want to live by the Qun.”

“Which means dying!” Hawke says.

“Is that hard to grasp?” Saarebas closes his eyes, weary of this conversation. It is more than he has spoken in many years combined; his voice is tired and strained. He is exhausted. Where can he go? How can he turn himself in? But if he cannot submit his life to the Qun, he will do what needs to be done himself.

All this he thinks in a flash—when an unexpected voice chimes in.

“You cannot force a choice, human,” Mahariel says.

Saarebas turns to watch as the elf pulls Hawke by the arm, halting her pursuit. “You are wrong to impede Saarebas like this. He has told you he wishes to live by the Qun. I do not believe it is a death sentence that awaits him with his kind.”

The words pull Saarebas’ attention. He is no longer walking away, his prior train of thought halted as he turns to listen, shocked.

“You would have him returned to his people?” Hawke demands. “To being bound and abused?”

“The Qun is balance, and it is life where otherwise there is death. Let me escort Saarebas to his people. I can explain in such a way that he is not put to death, but returned to his proper station.”

“I can’t believe you. That is monstrous!” Hawke’s voice teems with something Saarebas cannot name, for he has never experienced it. But monstrous? How can he be, when this elf is offering the first glimpse of hope he has seen in months?

“You are free to try and stop me,” Mahariel says sternly. When there is no answer, he turns his attention back to Saarebas. “Wait for me here. I may be basra, but I will lead you to the Qun.”

“You are basalit-an,” Saarebas says softly. He drops to the ground, tired, so tired, but relieved.

Hawke argues further, but from a distance, and the two leave for some time. Eventually, the elf returns, with another of his kind.

And so Saarebas is escorted by two strange basalit-an. He is frightened, still uncertain. Can he really rejoin his people and live under the Qun?

The elf, Mahariel, is strange. He carries something in his blood—magic that Saarebas cannot understand. The other elf does not speak at all during their journey.

It is only many years later that Saarebas realizes their identities. He meets them as a new man, with a new name—Adaar—though their names are unchanged. Hamal Mahariel and Zevran Arainai, who traveled with the Arishok during the Blight. It is a coincidence that saves him.

That day, the Arishok spoke to him, though he was not yet the Arishok, and wouldn’t be for many years. Mahariel’s mouth moved, but the Arishok’s words moved through them. Those words told Saarebas about the Qun’s role in a world of unfolding complexity, about flexibility as a means of adaptation, indeed, survival. The idea that the Qun was not rigid, that it never had been. It was born to suit its followers, as they were born to suit the Qun. Both in balance, a cycle.

Before returning, Mahariel asks him if he will choose every day to live by the Qun—but choose actively, and decisively, for himself. Saarebas agrees.

And time goes on. The old Arishok comes and goes. The world changes. The world is flexible. There is no chaos, only complexity. Having been given a second chance, Saarebas rejoices to be returned. But something has taken root. Sten’s words, carried through the Warden Mahariel, are an echo across time, across the sea. And when Sten becomes the Arishok, his words become the Arishok’s words.

One day Saarebas asks himself if he is fulfilling his duty by the Qun, and the answer surprises him.

That day, Saarebas finds that it is no longer his purpose to be bound.

**Author's Note:**

> This idea popped into my head and I haven't been able to get rid of it. Not sure if I will further explore the idea of Ketojan as the Inquisitor; he would be very much driven by the Qun, and seek to improve the role of Saarebas under its philosophies! I am often critical of the approach to writing the Qunari as solely antagonistic. Like any culture, theirs is multi-dimensional and alive, growing over time. I do want to clarify that Hamal is strongly against mages being kept in captivity; he simply knew that Ketojan was about to kill himself in a panic, and did what Sten would have wanted. (The original draft of my worldstate has the Warden outright converting to the Qun--this is no longer the case, but he remains sympathetic!)


End file.
